Jeremiah 3:14 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 3:14
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
two
וּשְׁנַ֙יִם֙u.she.Na.yim
H8147
two · conjunction + cardinal number, both genders dual absolute
family
מִמִּשְׁפָּחָ֔הmi.mish.pa.Chah
H4940
a family · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
bring
וְהֵבֵאתִ֥יve.he.ve.Ti
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
Zion
צִיּֽוֹןtzi.Yon
H6726
Tsijon (as a permanent capital) · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hosea 2:19-20 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in…
Jeremiah 2:19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter…
Jeremiah 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt;…
Isaiah 54:5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he…
Jeremiah 31:8-10 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the wo…
Ezekiel 34:11-14 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
Zechariah 13:7-9 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall…
Isaiah 6:13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 3:12-19
Here is a great deal of gospel in these verses, both that which was always gospel, God's readiness to pardon sin and to receive and entertain returning repenting sinners, and those blessings which were in a special manner reserved for gospel times, the forming and founding of the gospel church by bringing into it the children of God that were scattered abroad, the superseding of the ceremonial law, and the uniting of Jews and Gentiles, typified by the uniting of Israel and Judah in their return out of captivity. The prophet is directed to proclaim these words towards the north, for they are a call to backsliding Israel, the ten tribes that were carried captive into Assyria, which lay north f…
I am married--literally, "I am Lord," that is, husband to you (so Jer 31:32; compare Hos 2:19-20; Isa 54:5). GESENIUS, following the Septuagint version of Jer 31:32, and Paul's quotation of it (Heb 8:9), translates, "I have rejected you"; so the corresponding Arabic, and the idea of lordship, may pass into that of looking down upon, and so rejecting. But the Septuagint in this passage translates, "I will be Lord over you." And the "for" has much more force in English Version than in that of GESENIUS. The Hebrew hardly admits the rendering though [HENGSTENBERG].
take you one of a city--Though but one or two Israelites were in a (foreign) city, they shall not be forgotten; all shall be resto…
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord,.... All of them were children by national adoption, and some by special grace, and yet "backsliders", O monstrous ingratitude! "backsliders", and yet "children", still the relation continues, O marvellous grace! God's own children may backslide, and often do; either in heart, when love waxes cold, faith declines, zeal wanting; when they get into a carnal sleepy frame of spirit, and have not that quick sense of sin, and of duty, as heretofore: or in practice, when private prayer is restrained; public worship is neglected; get into bad company, and fall into gross sins; all which is owing to the prevalence of indwelling sin, the force of Satan's te…
The Church Fathers
We should consider our pastor happy in his death because he has laid aside his life at an age rich with years and has gone to his rest with the greatest honors from the Lord. Concerning all else we have this to recommend, that you should cast off all depression, regain self-control and rise to the necessary duty of caring for the church, so that the holy God may give heed to his own flock and provide for you a shepherd according to his will, one who will govern you wisely.
God, who gave the word to those who preach the gospel with great power for the perfection of the gospel, may he himself hold me by my right hand, and guide me with his counsel and receive me with glory. He is a shepherd to shepherds and a guide to guides that we may feed his flock with knowledge, not with the instruments of a foolish shepherd, according to the blessing, and not according to the curse pronounced against the people of former days. May he give strength and power to his people, and himself present them to himself.
Brethren and especially priests, if God rebukes whom he loves, and rebukes him for the very purpose of amending him, do not hate, but love those whom you rebuke, that you may amend them. God also before predicted by Jeremiah and pointed to our times, when he said, "And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they shall feed you with the food of discipline." But if in Holy Scripture discipline is frequently and everywhere prescribed, and the whole foundation of religion and of faith proceeds from obedience and fear, what is more fitting for us urgently to desire? What is there more to wish for and to hold fast than to stand with roots strongly fixed and with our houses based with solid mass on the rock, which is unshaken by the storms and whirlwinds of the world, so that we may come by the divine precepts to the rewards of God?
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Marriage — Was instituted in Paradise when man was in innocence (Gen. 2:18-24). Here we have its original charter, which was confirmed by our Lord, as the basis on which all regulations are to be framed (Matt.…
Backsliding · Exhortations to return from — Exhortations to return from
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Conversion · Promises connected with — Promises connected with
Husband · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Marriage · Illustrative of: God’s union with the Jewish nation — Illustrative of: God’s union with the Jewish nation
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Jeremiah 3:14
14. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
14. Revertimini filii rebelles, dieit Jehova, quoniam ego maritus vester (vel, dominatus sum in vobis, ut alii vertunt; alii, taedio affectus sum in vobis; dicemus postea de hoc verbo,) et assumam vos, unum e civitate, et duos e familia (vel, cognatione, vel, tribu,) et addueam vos in Sion.
Jeremiah repeats the same thing in other words; but God by so many words shews clearer how ready he would be to grant pardon, provided the Israelites really repented. It would have been enough for God to testify once, that he wo…
An indispensable element of the return is: Acknowledge thy guilt, thine offence, for grievously hast thou offended; thou art fallen away (פּשׁע), and תּפזּרי את־דּרכיך, lit., hast scattered thy ways for strangers; i.e., hither and thither, on many a track, hast thou run after the strange gods: cf. Jer 2:23.
The repeated call שׁוּבוּ, Jer 3:14, is, like that in Jer 3:12, addressed to Israel in the narrower sense, not to the whole covenant people or to Judah. The "backsliding sons" are "the backsliding Israel" of Jer 3:7, Jer 3:8, Jer 3:11., and of Jer 3:22. In Jer 3:18 also Judah is mentioned only as it is in connection with Israel. בּעלתּי בכם, here and in Jer 31:32, is variously explained.…
Return home: The Lord had spoken to all Israel as a husband to an adulterous wife, but now he refers to Israel as wayward children. The Lord would bring selected exiles back to the Promised Land (31:6, 32; Hos 2:19-20; Rom 11:5). • to the land of Israel: Hebrew to Zion.
Rashi on Jeremiah 3:14
backsliding children (Envasec in O.F.) That you perverted your way because of much good, that you enjoyed tranquility and pleasure, as Scripture states: They hum snatches of song to the tune of the lute (Amos 6:5), those who drink from bowls of wine (v. 6).
for I possessed you and you are called by My name, that I am your Master, and it is not honorable for Me to leave you in the hands of My enemies.
